


If you ever enter my mind. Stay there, you'll live

by sleepyfaceandsnark (teamwinchesterbros)



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe, But also not, Deaf Character, Deaf Ian, Gen, Happy Ending, Human Mickey, M/M, Science Fiction, also, but not really, challenging prompt, deaf!Ian, don't worry no robot sex or anything of that nature, mickey's a robot, so...yeah, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 16:30:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4443488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamwinchesterbros/pseuds/sleepyfaceandsnark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian, a 17 year old kid who commonly gets picked on because of his disabilities, tries out an offer he gets from a man who he accidentally helps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If you ever enter my mind. Stay there, you'll live

**Author's Note:**

> PROMPT: Ian discovers a device called "Build-A-Thug" and uses it to create a thug body guard to stop the bullies at school.

 

 

 

 

Ian Gallagher is a boy from the Southside of Chicago with 5 siblings.  He also happens to be born deaf. He was also born premature thanks to his mother’s many drug intakes during her pregnancy. This left him with a few health challenges as a child. He’s fine now and the only evidence of him having problems was his slightly slender frame, that and the fact he never learned to throw a punch.

It’s because of Ian’s “challenges”, as his doctors so nicely put it, Ian gets picked on a lot. He stopped bothering his family with it around the time he left middle school.

People made fun of him for anything and everything. From calling him a “crack baby” to any insults they could think of on deaf people.  They make fun of him right in front of his face knowing he couldn’t hear them, though the fact that he could read lips never crossed their minds. It’s because of this Ian usually kept to himself, which naturally warranted even more harassment. They tended to be just remarks. People usually weren’t violent. _Usually._

Till one day Ian came home with a bloody nose and a black eye. “You should see the other guy” He said to Fiona’s worried face when he walked in the door.

Ian had to stop her from calling the school knowing that it’d only get him more shit. Fiona signs him a “be careful” every time he leaves for school now and he just thinks. How can he possibly be careful when he can’t even hear when someone is coming for him?

It’s a Monday afternoon when he leaves school to head home. He sees a businessman walking hurriedly towards him when a gust of wind picks up past them. Ian hugs his arms close to his chest to protect himself from the cool air. Meanwhile the man who was walking towards him is now running across the street trying to scavenge the papers he seem to have lost out of his now opened briefcase. Ian spots a paper blowing in his direction and runs to save it for him. He picks up as many as he can and makes his way over to the man, holding out the stack of papers for him to grab.

“Oh my god. Thank you so much. Thank you. You’re a life saver!” The main excitedly exclaims.

Ian understood the thank you but missed most of it as the man looked down at which exact papers Ian saved.

The main riffled through the papers with a shock expression. “Oh my. You have no idea what would have happened if I lost these.” The man laughs.

Ian gives him a questioned look sighs that he can’t hear to the man. He doesn’t expect the man to know sign language but usually when people see someone sign the get the picture.

“These are very important.” The man say slower. “uhh.”

Ian stops him and nods to let the man know he understands. The man smiles.

“I don’t know how to make it up to you.”

Ian gestures to him to not worry about it but the man seems to get a bright idea by the look on his face. He pulls out a card from his jacket pocket and points to the number.

“Give this a call.” The man says when Ian looks up at him. “Say John Radcliff recommended you, that’s me, and the order is on him.”

Ian smiles. The man holds out his hand to shake and Ian takes it.

“Nice to meet you.” He says.

“You too. Umm?”

“Ian.”

“Ian. Good to meet you. Thank you,” John says holding up the paper. He points to the card. “And enjoy.”

Ian looks at the card. He sees a number and a website url. The company name is Kronos Heaven and Ian’s not quite sure what that means.

He waits until he gets home and finds the family laptop unoccupied to look it up. After a few minutes browsing he finds that it is a company that makes people, or rather realistic looking robots that act as people depending on what you wanted. There were different categories. Boyfriend/girlfriend seems to be the most popular, Ian’s not interested in that. There was also brothers and sisters, (Ian has plenty), aunts, uncles, ect, Ian doesn’t have much but he doesn’t mind. There was friends that come in a pack or best friend that come as a single. Though Ian doesn’t really have any besides some people that liked to pity him he also isn’t too interested. Then he saw it. Protector.

Ian, interested now, decides to look into it. He reads the description. “Someone to be there for you when things get tough. Someone to keep the bullies away.” Ian thinks for a moment. The guy did say it was on him. He looks at the card and thankfully realizes there’s an email under the phone number. He emails the company asking about the Protector edition and mentions the name John Radcliff as he was told to do. He also leaves a P.S asking if he could be customized for deaf people like himself.

He gets an email back within the hour allowing him to the free purchase of one of their products and confirming that it was possible to make the products accessibly for all people with disabilities.

It’s the first time in a long time Ian just says “fuck it”. I mean it is free. He goes to the protector section and customizes his product: Good build, strong, smart. Ian grins as he looks at the other abilities. Fighting stands out to him and he clicks it quickly. He chooses custom on the eyes and hair, cause why should he care? Also height cause as long as the guy…or…thing could fight Ian doesn’t care. He doesn’t actually want to hurt anyone just for them to think more before approaching him or something. He doesn’t want to be an easy target anymore. He wants to be… well…protected. Customizer gives him a product with black hair and blue eyes and…around 5’7. _Odd_ Ian thinks, but shrugs it off. He looks further in the custom tag and decides on some tattoos.

 _Now what will keep people away?_ Ian thinks. _What seems like a threat before any words are even able to escape?_  Ian smiles as he thinks of it. _Perfect_. He quickly types “Fuck U-Up” into the custom tattoo section. He decides to adjust some personality traits to make things interesting and clicks the ASL option for languages and he’s done. He goes to pay to see that the amount now says $0.00. He puts in his address and phone number and clicks “order.” A message pops up and tells him his shipment will be there in 2-3 business days.

Ian quickly exists out of the browser and turns the computer off. He waits on the couch for the rest of his family to come home, with a book in his hand.

 

2 business days later Ian sees a large package on the porch after getting home. He thanks god that no one stole it from their doorstep as he drags it inside. Thankfully he’s left home alone again, Lip fucking off with some chick from his homeroom and Debbie, Carl, and Liam are still in school. Fiona is off at work.

Ian quickly grabs some tools from the basement to help him open the large crate. After 15 minutes of struggling Ian’s finally able to get it open. He sees nothing but packaging popcorn and rummages through the opened crate, covering the floor with the stuffing. He sees the object in front of him. A very realistic robot lays in the crate, eyes closed. He reaches further into the box to find some sort of instruction manual.

He finally finds one and notices it’s a universal one. Applicable to all the products. He glances over the other products and how to activate. Boyfriend/Girlfriend/Lovers are activated with a kiss, Relatives with a hug, Friends with a handshake. _So what activates a “protector”_ Ian thinks. _A threat?_ Ian looks through the manual and gets to his products section.

 _Click the on switch under the products ear._ The instruction says. Ian shrugs and looks behind the ear. He sees a very small button that’s disguised as a freckles and pushes it on. He waits. Soon he sees blue eyes staring up at him and blinking. The face wears a scowl and Ian begins to question what he did.

The body sits up in the crate.

“The fuck am I?” It says automatically.

So that option was working. Ian opens his mouth but then remembers one of his customized features. He signs to the robot instead. He lets him know he’s in Chicago. Southside.

“Like I know what that is.” The robot says again. Ian can’t understand why the sign language function isn’t working. Maybe it needed to warm up. He stares at the robot, waiting.

“Oh right.” It says then looks at his hands. He starts signing. **I’m your customized robot here to protect you or whatever. You can name me. Or not. It’s up to you.**

Ian nods. Name. Name. He didn’t even think of a name. He looks around the room. At the dvds by the tv stand, Debbie’s school papers on the coffee table, Carl’s G.I. Joe doll that was missing an arm and leg, and Liam’s toy. Liam’s toys. He looks closer. There was a bear. Teddy? Nah. A monkey. A blanket. A turtle. And…wait. A mouse. But not just any mouse. The Disney mouse. Mickey Mouse.

Ah. Ian thinks. **How about Mickey?**  Ian signs to his robot amazed at how realistic it looks. Everything, especially the eyes. He swears he can see them glisten at the name.

 **Sounds good.** The robot signs.

“Mickey it is.” Ian says at loud and is surprised when he sees no laughter from Mickey. He’s so used to the kids at school laughing every time he tries to talk. It’s why he stays quiet so much. Even his own family is lucky if they hear him speak. But Mickey, he doesn’t care around Mickey. He is just a robot after all.

Ian brings Mickey to school with him every day, claiming to Fiona he’s just a friend he met. Mickey keeps the bullies away for sure. He’s intimidating to look at and the “Fuck U-Up” tattoos definitely helps. He looks like he comes from a family you don’t want to fuck with and it makes Ian laugh knowing that he’s just factory made but the snark and toughness Mickey gives off to people made it all seem so real. A part of Ian dreams he is real and not just some factory made invention that Ian customized. Ian wishes it was actually someone he can talk to and spend time with without needing to be plugged in to charge. He laughs at himself. Like he could get a real person to show an interest in him. But he has Mickey. Even if he is some factory made robot that was given to him by a man he helped on the street.

Ian should’ve known when he got a letter in the mail a month later claiming his free trial was up. Free trial for what? He thinks. He reads the company name and realizes it means Mickey. But they can’t take away Mickey. He’s all Ian has. He also was never told it would just be a trial thing. He thought he was getting Mickey for free, for…as long as he needed him.

He quickly emails the company back to let them know and after some convincing on Ian’s part they agree to let him keep Mickey with the condition that Ian will have to report back on things he experiences with and without Mickey to help them improve further on the “protector” model and other possible models.

As weeks pass Ian gives them as much info as he can and him and Mickey get closer. But the further they do it starts to seem as if Mickey knows. Ever since he was activated Mickey acted, talked, and felt like a human. After Ian named him it seemed as if Mickey forgot he was a robot and just embraced humanity and it’s as if now Mickey is starting to realize he isn’t human after all. He knows he’s supposed to protect Ian and he knows he does a damn well good job at doing so but he doesn’t know why.

One day Ian sits Mickey down and explains to him. He shows him the manual and the instructions. Mickey looks at it and reads it.

 **But I feel.** Mickey signs to Ian. **Robots can’t feel.**

Ian closes his mouth and sighs sadly to Mickey. He signs to him and tells him to not worry about it. He lets him go downstairs to check on dinner.

Ian grabs the manual from where Mickey left it and goes through it. He reads through it quickly. He looks through the start up, the charging instructions, the “if damaged what to do” section, and then looks at the warning section.

There’s the usual if you’re allergic to this and that make sure the product doesn’t wear this or that. Discontinue use of product if you don’t agree with actions ect ect. Then he looks further.

 _Warning: Products are not human and should not be substituted for human interactions._ Ian laughs at that and reads further. _If product begins to show signs of “humanistic abilities” such as but not limited to human emotion please discontinue use._

Ian scoffs. What’s so bad about a caring robot, Jesus? He puts the book away and joins Mickey downstairs.

As time passes Mickey and Ian get closer and even Ian forgets he actually purchased Mickey on an online store and customized him. He just seems so real, so full of personality that Ian couldn’t have even think to add, so full of different emotions. And the way he looks at Ian his eyes seem so full of…love.

But robots can’t love.

The same amount of time passes as Mickey seems to become more human he also seems to become…weaker and weaker. One day it takes Mickey 15-20 minutes to warm up after charging at night and Ian starts to get worried. He’s falling “asleep” a lot during school and at Ian’s house. He starts to act like a phone that’s been dropped to many times. He takes forever to wake up, he forgets things, simple things. One day he forgets how to sign and that’s when Ian decides to email the company. This has to be a dysfunction. Hopefully it will be a quick fix.

He gets an email back. “Has the product been expressing any human emotions or other things?”

Ian answers truthfully. The more they got to hang out the more human Mickey became.

“Has the product talked about human emotions such as love?’

“Yes.”

“Does the product know it isn’t human?”

“No. He does but he doesn’t believe it.”

Then Ian gets a more formal email. “We regret to inform you your product has become dysfunctional. If you would like to send the product back to the makers you are welcome to a full refund. Please deactivate before sending back as we don’t want trouble during transfer. Thank you for your interest in Kronons Heaven and we hope to have further interactions with you.”

Ian looks at the email in shock. Dysfunctional? Deactivate? Send back? But Mickey wasn’t dysfunctional. Ian can’t even think of deactivating him that isn’t even a thing that crossed his mind. He can’t imagine what he’d do without Mickey, robot or not.

Ian composes himself and emails back. “I’m sorry I don’t understand. Dysfunctional? Mickey…I mean my product is perfectly fine. Maybe there’s just a wire lose or something. I don’t have to deactivate him. There has to be a solution.”

He gets an email back right away. “Unfortunately this is a problem with the product. We warn our customers to not let their product acquire human emotion because the more ‘human’ they become the more dysfunctions the products have. This is a problem with our product we hoped to have gotten solved but it has been proved to be harder than we anticipated. We are sorry for the loss of your product and we’ll be happy to provide you with a full refund.”

 _I don’t want a refund._ Ian thinks. _I just want Mickey._

“What if I don’t send him back?” Ian emails back. Nothing else.

“Whether you deactivate the product or not it will eventually deactivate itself. We find it’s easier for customer to deactivate themselves and send the product back as opposed to watching the product slowly lose its function.”

Ian sits back in his chair and runs his hands down his face. He wants to cry but he can’t. What a stupid reason to do so too. Mickey isn’t even human. Leave it to Ian. He can only get a robot to love him. He feels a hand on his shoulder as he’s about to let tears escape his eyes. He looks up to see Mickey. He looks exhausted.

 **What’s wrong?** Mickey signs, staring at Ian.

Ian shakes his head. **How are you feeling?**   He signs instead.

**Ok. Just tired.**

Ian nods.

 

Tired becomes the main description for Mickey as the week passes. He gets out of bed only a few times during the day until the end of the week he’s not able to get up at all. Ian stays by him. It was explained long ago to his family what Mickey was as soon as they started suspecting why he was there every day. Ian never explained to them what was happening to Mickey but miraculously he was left home for the weekend with a few “checking in” texts from Fiona.

Mickey grows weaker and can’t sign anymore and Ian stays with him until his false eyelids closed and he no longer responds to Ian’s voice. He stays with him till his factory-made lungs stop moving his fake chest up and down.

“Thank you, Mickey.” Ian says as he leaves the room. After a few hours he emails the company letting them know he’ll be sending Mickey back to them. A refund isn’t necessary Mickey did his job. He kindly thanked them and they sent an address for Ian to send Mickey to.

The next day Ian packages him and ships Mickey off, leaving him forever.

Or what he thought.

 

Fiona comes home later that day with the kids and Ian tries to act cheerfully.

 **Where’s Mickey?** Fiona asks.

**Sent him back.**

**Refund?**

**Nah.**

Fiona nods understanding. **I’m sorry.**

Ian shrugs.

They sit for dinner that Fiona picked up on the way back and Ian watches as they talk about their camping trip Fiona’s boyfriend invited them on.

 **And we have new neighbors** Debbie signs.

Ian tries to look interested.

 **Yeah.** Fiona sighs. **Whole lot of them.**

Ian nods and signs a **Cool.** Before continuing on eating his meal. He excuses himself to his room soon after and just aimlessly stares at the space Mickey was days earlier. Ian sits on the bed and picks up his book. He reads to forget and to get lost. He falls asleep his book on his chest and wakes up just in time to see Lip get up to nudge him awake for school

Fantastic. Now he gets to go to school after the weekend he had. It’s not like someone died…but it kinda is.

As Ian walks home from school one day he feels a woosh past him as a guy runs, almost knocking him over. Ian shakes his head and grabs on to his hat he almost lost. _Fucker._ He feels another large gust of wind caused by a person running but this time the asshole knocks right into him. All of Ian’s papers fall to the ground and he’s about let them go. He honestly doesn’t give a shit about school work right now but he leans down to pick it up anyways and sees another set of hands grabbing his papers. The man’s hands are moving kind of fast to grab the papers but Ian could swear he could see letters on the knuckles. Then he sees the fingers snapping in his face and he looks up.

He looks up to an angry but familiar face.

The face’s brows are furrowed and he looks to be yelling but Ian can’t stop staring. Mickey. It’s Mickey. But it can’t be.

Ian slowly lifts his hands and points to his ear.

“You deaf?” The man says.

Ian just nods. He doesn’t know what else to do.

“Shit. I shoulda figured.” The man scratches his head. He hands Ian’s papers off to him and that’s when Ian can see his knuckles clearly.

The same “Fuck U-Up” tattooed on them that he had customized. He almost reaches out to touch them just to see if it was real but he grabs his papers instead last minute. He signs a thank you realizing that this man probably doesn’t understand him but hoping he’d realize the gesture anyways. He looks up at him. He looked like Mickey but even more human. Well cause he is human. He watches as the man’s brow stops furrowing and his eyes go softer.

He signs Ian back a **you’re welcome.** And Ian lets his mouth fall open. **I just moved in.** The man signs.

Ian nods and manages to sign **Heard we had new neighbors.**

 **You heard?** Then the man smiles and Ian almost laughs. Except he doesn’t let anyone hear him laugh. No one human at least.

 **You got a name?** The man signs next.

**Ian. Gallagher. Ian Gallagher.**

**Gallaher huh?**

Ian nods.

**Met your brother. Lip? Rather my sister met him and I happened to be there.**

**Sorry. Lip can be…** Ian tries to think of a word to describe his brother but comes up at a loss of words.

**Long as he treats my sister fine we’re good.**

**Can’t promise that.**

The man runs his hands down his face in mock exhaustion.

Ian hesitates to ask but he can’t stop himself. **Your name?**

The man smiles. **Milkovich.**

 _Weird first name._ Ian thinks.

**Mickey Milkovich.**

And Ian swears to God he fainted. Last thing he saw was Mickey quickly moving to him.

He wakes up must’ve been a few seconds later. He feels a hand slapping his face gently but anxiously. He opens his eyes and sees a blur of dark hair and blue eyes in his face. He blinks a few times to clear his vision and sees Mickey clearly again. So it wasn’t a dream.

 **You okay?** He signs.

Ian nods and tries to get up. He feels Mickey’s firm grip on him and he puts Ian to a sitting position instead.

 **Scared me there.** Mickey signs.

Ian doesn’t know how to explain why he is experiencing shock right now so he just makes up a reason he used to have. **I get sick sometimes.**

Mickey looks at him worried.

**It’s fine. I’m fine. It happens.**

He grabs onto Mickey to stand up and Mickey stops him again.

**Let me walk you home at least.**

Ian looks at Mickey, seeing how concerned he looks. **Okay.**

Mickey doesn’t intrude by insisting Ian grab onto him or anything. He just walks by him. He pulls out his phone at some point and types in an empty text message. He hands it to Ian, and Ian grins. They talk like that until they get to Ian’s house.

 **How do you know how to sign anyway?** Ian asks when they get to his door.

**Aunt was deaf. Counted as a language in school back home so I took it. Then she taught me some more.**

**Oh cool.**

Mickey smiles. Ian turns to his door to open it and Mickey puts his hand on Ian’s shoulder. **You sure you’re okay?**

Ian smiles softly back. **Yeah. Thanks.**

 **No problem.** Ian looks at Mickey standing there feet shuffling back and forth. He thinks for a moment before inviting him inside.

They hang out a lot after first meeting and a year or so later do the stupid thing of falling in love. The other Mickey soon becomes a distant memory to Ian. It almost seems like a vivid coma dream and Ian can’t shake the feeling that maybe it was.  He’s mentioned it to Mickey once or twice and recalls the fear that it would scare him away. But it didn’t.

 **Maybe you knew me from the past or something and you didn’t realize it** Mickey assured.

 **Till I made a fucking doll out of you?** Ian joked. But maybe Mickey was right.

Ian stops thinking about the Kronos Heaven made Mickey and eventually doesn’t even hold memories of him until one night he wakes to Mickey nudging him awake.

Ian rubs his eyes and looks up at him.

 **You okay?** Mickey signs.

Ian nods. “Just had a dream.” He says as he rubs his eyes.

**About?**

Ian grins and signs back to Mickey. **Meeting you.**

**Ah. Which time?**

Ian scoffs appreciating that Mickey can joke about the …other Mickey. **The real time.**

 **Good.** Mickey moves closer to Ian and wraps his arms around him. He watches his boyfriend grin and eyes close again as he goes back to sleep. He smiles too as he pulls Ian closer to him, moving up on the bed so he can pull Ian to his chest. He kisses Ian’s head softly and closes his eyes too.

He doesn’t mention the past to Ian. He doesn’t mention Ian’s accident, the memory loss, the coma, and what happened after. He’s just glad they were able to find each other again. Despite everything they were able to find each other again. Mickey was told Ian wouldn’t know him or remember him but the asshole dreamt him up, whether he knew it or not and now he’s back with Mickey where he belonged.


End file.
